Surrey RCMP making headway on elections fraud investigation

The Surrey RCMP expects to submit a report to Crown counsel “within the next month” following a nearly seven-month police investigation into alleged widespread election fraud in this city leading up to the Oct. 20, 2018 civic election.

“I can confirm to you that we’re just finishing up our report to Crown Counsel and we’ll be submitting it within the next month,” Surrey RCMP Corporal Elenore Sturko told the Now-Leader on Monday.

The Crown will then review the report to determine if charges are warranted.

“As you know the role of Surrey RCMP is not to make determinations on charges but to lay out evidence for Crown to review,” Sturko said. “All I can say is that we are finishing the report to Crown Counsel and within the next month they’ll have it.”

Three weeks before the election, the Surrey anti-gang grassroots organization Wake Up Surrey lodged a complaint with the RCMP on Sept. 28 alleging vote buying involving the city’s South Asian community, misuse of absentee ballots and a scheme to solicit registered voters to fill out mail-in voting forms with a total target of 15,000 eligible voters.

The RCMP has set up a dedicated tip line, at 604-599-7848.

Roughly a week before the election, the RCMP said 67 of 73 applications to vote by mail that police had examined were fraudulent, investigators had interviewed two “persons of interest” and were trying to determine if criminal charges, or charges under the Local Government Act, are warranted.

Investigators at that time had not found evidence of fraud linked to any political candidate or slate.